Friday, April 16, 2010

Sunday Classics preview: Debussy -- the man who heard the music in moonlight

So you think you don't know from Claude Debussy (1862-1918)? Here are three little pieces, originally written for piano solo, that have been absorbed into the general culture, arranged for just about every imaginable performance situation.

In case it doesn't go without saying, I take some of the above renderings more seriously than others -- Angel Romero's guitar "Clair de lune," for example, seems to me a notably beautiful piece of work, which takes on a life of its own. Still, while you're obviously free to disagree, for me in all three cases the music really comes to life, and enters the realm of the magical, in the piano originals. This quintessentially French music is played for us by three wonderful and wonderfully different pianists, none of them exactly French, who made first-rate recordings of the complete piano works of Debussy.

Hungarian-born Peter Frankl (born 1935) was about 26 but already a remarkably polished artist when he recorded all the Debussy piano works (and a great deal of other music) for Vox; he has graced the faculty of the Yale School of Music since 1987 [at left he is, shall we say, no longer 26]. The great German pianist Walter Gieseking (1896-1956) was actually born in France, and must have absorbed enough of the ambience in his family's travels to explain his remarkable affinity for the piano works of Debussy and Ravel, both of which he recorded complete. The Italian-born Aldo Ciccolini (born 1925), one of the warmest and user-friendliest pianists I know, has been a French citizen since 1969 -- from the '60s onward he played a key role in the revival of interest in the sometimes soulful, often impudent music of Erik Satie.

Tomorrow night we look into the question of audible evolution in Debussy's musical imagining, with the solo-flute "Syrinx" and a flute-and-piano version of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, including a tribute to one of the great flutists and flute teachers, Julius Baker, and maybe a surprise or two along the way. In Sunday's post we hear the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune in proper orchestral garb and travel the distance from the Saxophone Rhapsody to La Mer.

6 Comments:

Frankl's a fine musician who has never been in the spotlight. Few people know he was a student of the great Hungarian teacher, Leo Weiner, a contemporary and friend of Bartok and Kodaly. I've liked his work for years. Thanks for noting Frankl alongside the superstars!

Yes, B, as I know you know, talent and musical achievement don't necessarily have much to do with who gets the "big" careers. I confess even I was a little surprised, on listening more carefully to those early Debussy recordings of Peter Frankl's, to find just how remarkable were, or rather are. I've already described him as a "wonderful" pianist, so I'll just add that I'll bet he's a terrific teacher too.